[4] The religious leader of the community, since March 2017, is Catholicosal Vicar Archbishop Khoren Doghramadjian, accountable to the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia.

In the middle Byzantine period, Armenian generals and governors served in Cyprus, like Alexios Mousele or Mousere who undertook the construction of Saint Lazarus' basilica in Larnaca.

[7] After the purchase of Cyprus by titular Frankish King of Jerusalem Guy de Lusignan in 1192, in his attempt to establish a western-type feudal kingdom, the latter sent emissaries to Europe, Cilicia and the Levant, resulting in a massive immigration of Armenians and other peoples.

Armenians were amongst the seven most important religious groups in Cyprus, in possession of stores and shops in the ports of Famagusta, Limassol and Paphos, as well as in the capital Nicosia, thus controlling a large segment of commerce.

[citation needed] According to chroniclers Leontios Makhairas, Georgios Boustronios and Florio Bustron, the Armenians of Nicosia had their own Prelature and used to live in their own quarter, called Armenia or Armenoyitonia.

A number of Armenians defended the Frankish Kingdom of Cyprus against the Genoese at Xeros, against the Saracens at Stylli village and against the Mamelukes in Limassol and Khirokitia.

By 1425, the renowned Magaravank – originally the Coptic monastery of Saint Makarios near Halevga came under Armenian possession, as did sometime before 1504 the Benedictine/Carthusian nunnery of Notre Dame de Tyre or Tortosa in walled Nicosia.

During the Latin Era, there was also a small number of Armenian Catholics in Nicosia, Famagusta and the Bellapais Abbey, where Lord Hayton of Corycus served as a monk.

Additionally, the Magaravank monastery had won the favour of the Ottomans and became an important way station for Armenian and other pilgrims en route to the Holy Land, as well as a place of rest for travellers and Catholicoi and other clergymen from Cilicia and Jerusalem.

Known for their linguistic skills, several Armenians were contracted to Cyprus to work as interpreters and public servants at the consulates and the British administration, such as Apisoghom Utidjian.

The number of Armenians in Cyprus significantly increased following the massive deportations, the massacres and the genocide perpetrated by the Ottomans and the Young Turks.

Industrious, cultivated and progressive, they brought new life into the old community and establish themselves as people of the arts, letters and sciences, entrepreneurs and merchants, craftsmen and photographers, as well as professionals who introduced new crafts, dishes and sweets to the island, thus contributing to Cyprus' socioeconomic and cultural development.

Law-abiding by nature,[citation needed] Armenian-Cypriots always had a high-profile with the British administration and many became conscientious civil servants and disciplined policemen or were employed at the Cyprus Government Railway and at Cable and Wireless.

Also, the Eastern Legion was formed and trained between December 1916 and May 1918 in Monarga village, near Boghazi, consisting of over 4,000 Diasporan Armenian volunteers who fought against the Ottoman Empire.

In many ways unique across the whole Armenian Diaspora, it was built just outside Nicosia between 1924 and 1926, after the generous and benevolent donation of the Egyptian-Armenian tobacco trading brothers Krikor and Garabed Melkonian, initially in order to shelter and educate 500 orphans of the Genocide, who planted the trees in front of the school in memory of their slaughtered relatives.

The size of the community, however, had been reduced because of the emigration of about 900 Armenian-Cypriots to the United Kingdom, due to the emergency situation caused by the EOKA struggle and the poor state of the local economy.

[7] With the unfailing support of the government, the small yet industrious Armenian community of Cyprus gradually managed to recover from its losses and continued to prosper in the remaining urban areas, contributing culturally and socioeconomically to the development.

However, by the time Italian Abbot Giovanni Mariti visited Cyprus in 1760 and 1767, they had apparently become "the richest section of the inhabitants [of Nicosia]", which is why thought "there are many Armenians [on the island]".

In 1935 the Armenian Prelature recorded 3,819 Armenians in Cyprus: 102 were "native Cypriots" (mainly residing in Nicosia), 399 resided at the Melkonian Educational Institute, while 3,318 were "refugees", i.e. genocide survivors and their descendants; of those, 2,139 lived in Nicosia, 678 in Larnaca, 205 in Limassol, 105 in Famagusta, 58 in Amiandos, 25 in Lefka, 20 in Kalo Khorio (Lefka), 18 in Pano Lefkara, 17 around the Magaravank, 5 in Kyrenia, 4 in Paphos and 44 in various villages.

About 1,000 out of the 3,500 Armenians who live in Cyprus hail from Armenia, Lebanon, Syria, Russia, Georgia, Persia, Greece, Iraq, Ethiopia, Turkey and Kuwait.

[13] However, the largest wave of Armenian refugees – some of whom had come before and returned – were the nearly 9,000 who escaped the massive deportations, the horrific massacres and the genocide perpetrated by the Ottomans and the Young Turks; about 1,300 of them decided to stay, while the others eventually made arrangements to settle in other countries.

Those refugees came mainly from Adana and Seleucia (Silifke), while there a significant number of them came from Sis, Marash, Tarsus, Caesarea, Hadjin and Aintab; smaller numbers came from other places, alphabetically: Adapazar, Adrianople (Edirne), Afion-Karahisar, Alexandretta (Iskenderoun), Arapgir, Armash, Baghche, Bardizag, Balian Dagh, Biredjik, Bitlis, Brusa, Chemishgezek, Constantinople (Istanbul), Dörtyol, Edessa (Urfa), Erzerum, Eskishehir, Everek, Ikonion (Konya), Jeyhan, Kesab, Kharpert, Kutahia, Malatia, Mersin, Misis, Musa Dagh (Musa Ler), Nicomedia (Izmit), Rhaedestos (Tekirdagh), Sasun, Sebastia (Sivas), Shar, Sivri Hisar, Smyrna (İzmir), Tokat (Evdokia), Trepizond, Van, Yerzinga, Yozgat and Zeitun.

However, after the Armenian genocide, the party presence became minimal, save for individual members, supporters and/or sympathisers, until it was re-organised after World War II and was officially re-established in 1947; its chapter is called "Karenian", after Armen Karo, who briefly visited Cyprus, in order to organise the assembly of weapons for the Zeitoun Resistance.

The youngest Armenian political party in Cyprus is SDHP Hunchakian, which was set up on the island in 2005, following the split within the AGBU, which was brought about by the decision to close the Melkonian Educational Institute.

Other than promoting awareness and recognition of the Armenian genocide, which is more extensively examined below, the Armenian-Cypriot community has been lobbying successfully in favour of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, as a result of which Cypriot politicians and EuroMPs are sympathetic towards its existence.

During the last decade, the Armenian-Cypriot community was actively involved in the movement to raise awareness on the unilateral closure of the Melkonian Educational Institute by the AGBU (2004–2005), the Armenia-Turkey protocols and the extradition of Ramil Safarov to Azerbaijan (2012), as well as in events commemorating Hrant Dink's memory, organised every year since his murder in 2007.

Cyprus has been one of the pioneering countries in recognising the Armenian genocide, when on 25 January 1965 Foreign Minister Spyros Kyprianou first raised the issue to the General Assembly of the United Nations.

The main venue for community events is the AYMA club and the "Vahram Utidjian" Hall, at the basement of the Armenian Prelature building, both in Strovolos, Nicosia.

Because of Bedros Kalaydjian's death on 1 September 2005, a by-election was held on 9 October 2005, with Dr. Vahakn Atamyan receiving 52.03% (769 votes) against Dr. Antranik Ashdjian (43.91%) and Parsegh Zartarian (4.12%).

During the Ottoman Era, there was a very limited conversion of Armenian Orthodox to Catholicism, mainly due to the proselytising activities of the Franciscan mission in Nicosia and Larnaca, especially during the 17th and 18th centuries; however, these must have been temporary apostasies and their number never exceeded 50 at any given time.